Remote retinal scan identifier and video imaging apparatus are known. One such apparatus may have a laser, which may be any of the well known lasers including solid state lasers, such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, diode lasers, diode-pumped lasers, etc., which supplies a coherent light beam to a modulator. The modulator, when activated, impresses video information onto the light beam generally by modulating the intensity of the light beam as, for example, by providing changes in the power level of laser. Depending upon the application, the modulation could be as simple as turning laser off and on, which essentially translates into a digital system. Acousto-optic modulators are one of the preferred modulators for most applications, but other techniques, such as electro-optics and mechanical are completely feasible. The modulator may operate to allow direct passage (unmodulated) of the light beam from the laser when the modulator is deactivated.
The modulated/unmodulated light beam from modulator is directed to a deflection system. A lens system may be used to focus the light beam from the deflection system into the retina of a person's eye. The focal length of the lens system is chosen so that the focal point of the scanning optical system is at the pupil of the eye, and the focal point of the beam optical system is at the retina of the eye. The purpose of the deflection system is to scan the modulated/unmodulated light beam on the retina of the eye in a regular pattern, such as a rastor. There are many possible configurations for the deflection system and the lens system.
Passport technology dates back to the early 1900's. Passports serve 2 purposes: to identify the traveler, and to provide a record of travel. The current methodology involves submitting duplicate photographs to the passport office, one of which is physically pasted to the passport's inside cover, the second of which is scanned into the immigration (INS) database. When a traveler enters and/or leaves a country, the immigration officer compares the photograph in the database with the person standing before him to make a positive identification. If the person and the database photo match, the immigration officer physically stamps a dated entry onto a random page of the passport.
Existing passport technology suffers from the following drawbacks: (1) passport technology is paper based, subject to physical loss, theft, damage, etc.; (2) there is no convenient way to update the photograph, so passports expire after a maximum of 10 years for adults, and sooner for children; (3) it is difficult to re-trace a person's travels by looking at randomly located stamped entries in a small booklet.
Thus there is a need: (1) to be able to electronically update the photograph on demand, because a person's physical appearance can change over time due to facial hair, hair style/color, surgery, weight gain/loss, etc.; (2) for an electronic version of the passport to provide an easily readable and searchable travel log; (3) to be able to issue the passport upon demand (to avoid problems of loss, theft, damage as forgotten passports and thus improve security).